Nothing About Us Without Us!
THEY & THEM. When’s it gonna be We & Us?
It’s gonna be We & Us when you stop making the same mistakes over and over and over!
Nothing About Us Without Us has many meanings to me. Let’s start with the first one, which should be obvious, but judging by the news stories I’ve seen lately it clearly isn’t.
You Need the Right People in the Room
For all that is right and righteous, if you’re creating a program, shooting an ad campaign, or doing a roleplay, and everyone in the room looks like you and sounds like you, then you’re already headed down a black hole. I’m not saying that you need to include people of all cultures, ages, weights, etc., but you need to have people in the room with the same life experience as the people you’re trying to reach. No exceptions, no excuses!
Here’s another way of saying it. If you’re doing a role-playing exercise, and everyone in the room looks like you, then you’re really doing a high school play, not a role-play. A role-play gives you feedback on feelings. Until you have lived, not walked, but lived, in someone else’s shoes, you may have an understanding, but you cannot have the same feelings.
If you’re speaking about or planning something regarding someone who isn’t like you, then you need to consult with appropriate cultural groups to get a better understanding of the people you’re trying to deal with!
If you have a D&I officer, bring them into the meetings when issues are being worked on; don’t wait until things have been decided. If you’ve hired that person to run your D&I department, make sure that they’re in every meeting where you’re working on new products, policy, programs, packaging, and cultural outreach. They also need the power to pull in others. They should be part of your C-suite team!
If I’m working on something about the LGBTQ+ community, you better believe I’m calling plenty of friends and friends of friends in that community to ask questions. Take a moment to think before you leap into a project, because it’s clear whether you’ve made the effort or not made the effort to research and respect a culture. Just because you’ve seen it or done it in the past doesn’t mean that it’s right for this moment. If you don’t know, ask! (Maybe that should have been the title of this book!)
When you’re starting a project, you need inclusion of thought as well as cultural inclusion. Having a personal relationship with someone from a culture that’s not yours may give you insight into that culture, but it doesn’t make you an expert. It’s not the same as being on the inside.
You can hold internal focus groups, but only if your staff is diverse. (It’s sort of a Catch-22 – if you don’t have diversity in your company you can’t have an effective internal focus group on diversity.) One option is to hire a company to conduct a focus group for you, but you’ll need to give them the proper information to conduct an effective focus group that will give you the insights you need for your project. This means that you’ll need a focus group for the focus group. Another option is to hire consultants who can help you reach out to the diverse groups you’re trying to reach out to. For example, if you’re trying to speak to black folks during an election, there are educated black folks and points of contact outside the church. Just saying.
I hope that I’ve made my meaning clear. If not, call me. We’ll go for coffee or a drink and I’ll be happy to break it down further.
Avoid Mixed Messages
What’s happening internally in your company? Does Public Relations know what Advertising is doing? Does Advertising know what Marketing is doing? Does Social Media and Sales have the concept and context of the goal of the mission and campaign? This is where I see things go awry. I’ve read your press release. I’ve seen your ad. I’ve seen your post. I’ve seen your products in stores. But it’s obvious that somewhere a breakdown in communications happened! Why? Because you are clearly sending mixed messages! And now you’re in a mess!
Communication is the key. How is your message being said? Who’s saying it? Where is it being said? Who’s in the ad? Just because it’s a celebrity and you think it’s cool doesn’t mean that he can be dressed as an Indian chief. It’s not cool – it’s a mess if you haven’t researched your market or if all your departments aren’t on the same page. What-A-Mess!
Someone on the inside should have pointed the mess out to you. PR, Marketing, Advertising, Staff? If you don’t have diversity of thought you won’t understand cultural references and meanings. Now you’re in trouble!
Story Time
See the Pattern?
I love stories. When I came back to America I modeled as my side gig, and I landed a large national campaign. Having lived out of the country for thirteen years I was in the habit of asking about hair and make-up. I always brought wigs and makeup with me because more times than not the people running the campaign weren’t prepared, even though they told me not to worry. If I hadn’t been prepared, I would have been sorry.
Client: We would like to test adding extensions to your hair.
Me: Does the hair stylist know how to work with black hair?
Client: Yes, he does tons of 7th on Sixth Shows (New York Fashion Week).
Me: Hmm, OK.
Client: We’ll do a test for styles.
Me: Great, I’ll be there.
[Arrive at client office with their staff, hairstylist, and several executives present.]
Hairstylist: I’ll add a few extensions just to mock the styles for this evening.
Me: That’s great. Please keep in mind my agent mentioned that I’m booked for a job tomorrow, so please make sure that whatever we do tonight can come out and that we’re not gluing.
Hairstylist: I have glue that will rub out.
Me: You do see I’m black, right, and with black hair nothing rubs out, and we’re in the office and not a salon.
Long story short, the hairstylist didn’t work on the final campaign because the glue didn’t rub out. I had to be paid to have my hair redone and for the job that had to be pushed back (fortunately they switched me with another model at the last minute so I could have an extra day to find a stylist who could help), all at the cost of the client.
I should have spoken up sooner, but, like many people, I didn’t want to cause trouble. and yet we often end up in worse trouble when we keep quiet. I will never hold back again. Remember, if you want to cross over into other cultures, hire people who can do the job and listen to them!
The moral of this story also applies to women and those with disabilities and LGBTQ+ folks and so on. I don’t want you to think that this is just a color issue. Stop assuming that you know it all about the people you’re trying to reach. Bring those educated about the topic into the room and together you can make informed decisions.
You might be thinking that Diversity and Inclusion requires a lot of time and money, and you’re right. You may have to add a line item called research to your budget, unless you want to add a line item called additional legal fees.
I speak from experience. It was my job. I’ve been They & Them in the room, and I’ve been the consultant hired to be in the room to insure that They & Them in the room had a voice. If you call us into the room, don’t do it for show, do it because you’re invested in getting it right.
Advice for Leadership
I asked the following question in my questionnaire: If you could tell leadership anything about Nothing About Us Without Us, what would it be?
Include Us in the conversation.
— Promotion, Marketing & Event Planning
No policy should be decided by any representative without the participation of members of the group affected by that policy.
— Auto Industry
Leadership should know that ideas, especially those on a massive level, should be heard by a diverse group in order to ensure sensitivity and improve overall appeal.
— Media
As a member of the Latinx community, I have to say that no one person can make the decision for the entire community, since we are really a multi-colored, multi-cultured, multi-dialect group. We need to be consulted as individuals before implementing anything that may affect us.
— Garment Industry
Do not ignore or be oblivious to the need to take a comprehensive approach when making changes. Being proactive in taking the necessary steps to foster full representation and participation of all groups being impacted by the changes considered is what needs to be accomplished.
— Higher Education (University)
Equal pay should be for all races, genders, and the genderless.
— Construction Risk Management/Insurance
I want them to listen to us because we know our culture and we need to be part of any decision when it comes to our culture.
— Motion & Photography
Include a diverse selection of voices in decisions that affect the company policies, culture, benefits, and strategic plan.
— Education
They should get involved and get their hands dirty at the grassroots level, not just sit in their ivory tower and make decisions without even being physically present among their staff. Regular forums should be held, even on a one-on-one basis (since many staff would be uncomfortable being completely honest in a group setting), on what staff like and don’t like, what would cause them to leave or to stay, etc. People need to have candid conversations with no fear of judgment or of losing their job.
— Financial Services
Artificial Intelligence
Before we move on to the next chapter, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. I’m a true believer in tech and that it can be used for good. It can also be used to oppress those who don’t understand it and have a hard time using it.
AI is used for hiring. The “experts” speak about it as if it’s magical, like the Wizard of Oz. But if you pull back the curtain, you’ll see there’s a person programming the mysterious black box of AI, and what’s programmed in determines what the algorithms give back. So, if white men are giving other white men directions for hiring, and that’s what’s programmed into the box, where’s the diversity?
You’ve probably heard of the studies on AI hiring. You take two copies of the same resume, and you put an ethnic-sounding name on one copy and a non-ethnic-sounding name on the other. One resume gets tagged for an interview, the other doesn’t. Guess which one gets tagged.
If you’re going to use algorithms as part of your hiring process you need to have diverse people on the committee that decides what qualifications you’re looking for (Nothing About Us Without Us!). If you’re not involving diverse people in your process, you can’t just shrug and blame the AI – “Hey, the machine gave us what the machine gave us.” Non-diverse input means non-diverse output. Garbage in, garbage out. No excuses!
Moving On
There are no excuses for not including diversity of thought in your decision-making, and anyone in the room who doesn’t speak up is responsible for that lack of diversity.
Here are some important questions to ask yourself for your cultural check-up:
1. Have we expanded beyond our current culture to get additional opinions as we develop the project, policy, whatever?
2. Do we have the right people in the room to help us make decisions that will benefit the majority? (You can’t please everyone.)
3. Have we researched the culture we’re trying to reach? (This includes your company culture.)
4. Have we brought in others to review the project before releasing it, just in case our research is off?
5. What’s the meaning behind this outreach?
6. Have we done all we can do to make this successful?
7. Have we had everyone at the table? Head of D&I, Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, Consultants?
8. Does everyone understand the What, How, and Why?
9. Is Human Resources up to date on what to ask for from algorithms? Do they know how to direct the companies being asked to handle the search before it reaches HR?
10. Is this a true representation of my company and the message we’re trying to share?
11. Have I moved beyond reporting the numbers?
12. Has this been reviewed as a Zero Risk bias?
Remember, it takes a shorter time to ask the right questions than it does to recover from a misstep.
If you are using the lack of diversity and culture to get press – we see you.
Nothing About Us Without Us!
If you take only one thing from this book, this is it. This is the phrase you should think of any time you create policy, procedures, programing, advertising, public relations, hiring, writing, and outreach.
Who is in the room with you? Do they look like the people you’re trying to reach?
